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Kevin Croxton, a tryout contract player with Springfield last season and participant in last month's Lightning prospect camp, has signed an AHL/ECHL two-way contract with the AHL's Peoria Rivermen, according to the club. Peoria is the AHL affiliate of the St. Louis Blues, the team Croxton will represent at the upcoming Traverse City prospects tournament. Croxton was invited to an additional tryout in Springfield's camp by the Lightning organization, but obviously jumped at the sure thing in a pro contract with the Rivermen. Croxton had 2 goals and 2 assists in 10 games with the Falcons late last season after graduating from RPI.

Note: Story (and title) courtesy of the Prince George Citizen. Article no longer appears online.
[b]Imported beef on the blueline[/b]
by JIM SWANSON, Citizen Sports Editor
Itâ€™s like that old Johnny Carson schtick. That Vladimir Mihalik, heâ€™s so bigâ€¦ how big is he?
Well, for starters, on Tuesday the six-foot-eight, 234-pound defenceman spent about an hour trying to add lengthy wooden plugs to the top of two of the new electric-blue Easton Synergy composite sticks he and the rest of the Prince George Cougars will be using this season.
Cut off a stick to get it down to size? Nah â€” might need to chop down a telephone pole to find lumber long enough. To fit Mihalik in hockey pads, the guess is that the team will have to dig in the back of the equipment room for Derek Boogaardâ€™s old gear. Or Zdeno Charaâ€™s.

Today, the Johnstown Chiefs announced the resignation of GM Toby Oâ€™Brien. O'Brien has served as executive vice president and general manager of the Chiefs since 1996.
â€œToby has been a great asset both to the Johnstown Chiefs and to the Tampa Bay Lightning organization,â€ said Chiefs vice president of Hockey Operations Ryan Belec in a team release. â€œI consider Toby not only to be a colleague, but a good friend of mine, and I wish him the best in his future endeavors.â€

The Springfield Falcons have signed winger Zdenek Blatny to a standard AHL contract. Blatny was property of the Lightning last year and appeared in 31 games for the Falcons during the 2005-06 season collecting 14 goals and 15 assists for 29 points.
â€œZdenek is another player that provides us with some scoring depth at the forward position,â€ said Falcons President and General Manager Bruce Landon in a team release (article not on web site at this time). â€œZdenek displayed a strong scoring touch down the stretch last year and has proven he can be a solid point producer for us heading into the 2006-07 campaign.â€

The Johnstown Chiefs have signed defenseman Doug Andress.
A former Ohio State Buckeye, Andress appeared in 64 regular season games with the Chiefs in 2005-06, scoring 37 points (6g, 31a) and earning one assist in five Kelly Cup Playoff games. The Iroquois Falls, Ont.-native also appeared in one game with the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights of the American Hockey League, and in three games with the Springfield Falcons, the Chiefs' AHL affiliate, Andress registered his first career AHL goal.
"Doug is an experienced player," said Chiefs head coach Frank Anzalone in a press release. "He's strong on the power play and he enjoys playing in Johnstown. He's going into his third pro season, and with the interest in him show by Tampa Bay and Springfield, we're expecting him to perform at a high level this season."
[b]8/22 Note:[/b] Today's Johnstown [i]Tribune-Democrat[/i] story of the Andress signing suggests 10-12 parent club prospects could be with the Chiefs this year. The Lightning's Ryan Belec, the new Chiefs vice president of hockey operations and assistant to Tampa Bay Lightning GM Jay Feaster, says several of the young players participating in the Traverse City tournament could end up in Johnstown.